Site Mobile Navigation

Investigation Sought of Extensive F.D.A. Surveillance

WASHINGTON — Federal health officials faced pressure from Capitol Hill and outside groups on Monday to investigate a wide-ranging surveillance program that the Food and Drug Administration mounted against a group of its scientists who raised warnings about the safety of medical imaging devices.

Representative Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, sent a letter on Monday to Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, calling on her to conduct a full investigation into whether the surveillance program violated federal employee protections and whistle-blower laws.

“The tactics reportedly used by the F.D.A. send a terrible message to those who are prepared to expose waste, abuse or wrongdoing in government agencies,” wrote Mr. Van Hollen, whose staff communications were monitored by the F.D.A.

The New York Times disclosed in an article on Sunday that the agency’s surveillance of five of its own scientists beginning in 2010 had produced 80,000 pages of intercepted e-mails and other documents, along with what amounted to an enemies list of 21 “actors” at the agency, in Congress, the news media and academia who were thought to be collaborating to put out confidential information damaging to the reputation of the F.D.A.’s medical device reviews.

In a confidential memo in May, the Office of Special Counsel, which handles federal workplace grievances, found a “significant likelihood” that the devices posed “a substantial and specific danger to public safety” as the scientists had warned.

The F.D.A. scientists maintained that a number of medical imaging devices used to detect colon and breast cancer used unsafe levels of radiation. The special counsel’s office, which rejects the vast majority of the public safety claims that federal employees make, found that the concerns were valid enough to warrant a full investigation, and it sent the matter to Ms. Sebelius to conduct the review. She is scheduled to report back by the end of July, although the deadline may be extended.

The Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement on Monday that “HHS is reviewing Congressman Van Hollen’s letter, and will respond to him in the near future.” The department declined further comment.

An error has occurred. Please try again later.

You are already subscribed to this email.

Nick Papas, a White House spokesman, said Monday that he could not comment on the surveillance program because of continuing litigation and investigation. In general, he said, "this administration is committed to providing appropriate protections for whistle-blowers so workers can disclose wrongdoing without fear of retaliation while also ensuring federal data and information is handled appropriately and securely."

The White House issued a governmentwide memo last month in response to legal concerns about the F.D.A. surveillance program. The memo stressed that federal agencies could not monitor employees to dissuade whistle-blowers from reporting possible wrongdoing.

Any inquiries will most likely look at who authorized the agency’s surveillance program and how it was designed.

It appears that the F.D.A.’s information security section ran the day-to-day operations using so-called spy software that collected e-mails, screen images and other material from the scientists’ government-issued computers and on their personal thumb drives.

Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, said in a letter Monday to Dr. Margaret Hamburg, the F.D.A. commissioner, that he had learned from an unnamed source that the agency’s general counsel had signed off on the program in writing.

“The more we learn, the more disturbing it is,” Mr. Grassley said in a separate statement, expressing “disappointment and disbelief” over reports of the surveillance. The agency “has a lot of explaining to do in the weeks ahead” said Mr. Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, which has partial jurisdiction over the drug agency.

The Association of Health Care Journalists, which represents about 1,300 reporters worldwide, said in a letter to Ms. Sebelius that the disclosures about the surveillance program imperiled the ability of health care reporters to cover her department.

A version of this article appears in print on July 17, 2012, on Page A14 of the New York edition with the headline: Investigation Sought of Extensive F.D.A. Surveillance. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe